Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 7, 1 Iulai 1993 — ʻAi pono, e ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi pono, e ola

Eat right and live well

by Dr. Terry Shintani

Diabetes, native people, and diet

Hawai'i held the international spotlight May 19-21 as host of the Second International Conference on Diabetes and Native People. The conference was organized by the University of Arizona Native American

Research and Training Center (NARTC), with the Wai'anae Coast Comprehen-sive Health Center (WCCHC), the Health Commission Assembly of First Nations of Canada, the Indians Heahh Service, Office of

Hawaiian Affairs, and the Hawai'i affiliate of the American Diabetes Association. The conference was attended by 574 people from all over the world, most of them native people. They eame from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Micronesia, Hawai'i, Guam, even London,

England. At least 50 Native American tribes including the Navaho, Cherokee, Apaehe, Sious, Ojibwa, Pima, Iroquois, Mohawk, Winnebago, Choctaw, Kiowa, and Cree, to name a few, were represented. There was also

a strong representation from the Aborigines of Australia. The conference focused on culturally appropriate strategies for intervention on diabetes. For example, some projects seek to empower communities to take

better care of their own people by using community health workers, in partnership with health professionals. The number of projects presented was impressive. However, one theme remained the same. The health problems of native peoples from all over the world, diabetes

in particular, were remarkably similar. Every group could point to the introduction of Western ways, and the abandonment of traditional culture as a major cause of the high rates of disease and diabetes. Dr. Gary Nabham of Native Seeds Search, Arizona, who has worked with the Pima Indians, and the Aborigines, demonstrated results that were similar to ours in the impact of traditional diet on diabetes. They were so similar that I had to laugh in amazement with him because of how simple, inexpensive and effective this approach to diabetes was and that the Hawaiians, American Indians and Aborigines have a lot to offer modern medicine. Dr. Nabham, an ethnobotanist, has demonstrated that the traditional foods of the Pimas, includ-

ing mesquite (kiawe) pods and cactus fruit, were foods that seemed to prevent diabetes. He was also invited to work with the Aborigines on their native foods. However, he told me that when they use the traditional foods in Australia, the blood sugar in some individuals on medication for diabetes dropped so fast it was dangerous. Of course, in the Wai'anae Diet Program, we anticipate this same phenomenon and have a medical protocol that requires the reduction of diabetes medicine by 50 percent before the program starts in order to ensure a safe decrease in blood sugar. Chief Simon Lucas of Canada closed the session on traditional diet and brought the house down with humorous anecdotes on what it is like to have diabetes,

and to attempt the kind of dietary changes recommended to him in the past. Mueh information exchange and networking took plaee at this conference. One thing is clear: The problems faced by native peoples around the world are similar to those faced by the native Hawaiians. This kind of information exchange will help develop solutions to solve these problems more rapidly than if native peoples work alone. Terry Shintani, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., physician and nutritionist, is director of preventive medieine at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. The center is the largest provider of primary health care to native Hawaiians in Hawai'i.